Once, when the Master was sitting, a monk asked him, "What are you thinking of, [sitting there] so fixedly?" The master answered, "I'm thinking of not thinking (思量箇不思量底)." The monk asked, "How do you think of not thinking?" The Master answered, "Nonthinking (非思量)."
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Dōgen put this dialog at the heart of his (revised) instructions for zazen, the Fukanzazengi. The Master is here Yao-shan, who was Shih-t'ou's student. Yao-shan and Shih-t'ou appear in another similarly wonderful dialog:pic.twitter.com/TWJ1NqYRK7
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Dōgen's borrowing from Yaoshan comes from even earlier set of verses by Jianzhi Sengcan: 虚明自照 不勞心力 非思量處 識情難測 Empty, bright, self-illuminating - not toiling in mental exertion. The place of non-thinking - consciousness and emotion cannot fathom.
End of conversation
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